The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-04-29
A NIGHT IN PoMPEII.

Ed Mott, en- AZ. I. Sun.
A NIGHT IN POMPEI.
Dreaming of Things Long Dead and Gone
in the Far-Famed Temple of Isis.
The Italian Government has taken
possession of the eXcavated city of
POmpeii A law recently enacted
strictly forbids strangers entering or
remaining after sunset. / was anxious
to see the ruins by moonlight, and re-
solved to spend a night in that resur-
rected city of the Romans, the law to
the contrary Notwithstanding. The
preceding night had been spent on
Mount Vesuvius, and early in the
morning / arose from my lofty couch
and descended the side of the mountain
toward Pompeii along the same route
that the lava and ashes took eighteen
hundred years ago when the unfortun-
ate city was buried. The earth eXca-
waited from Pompeii has been thrown
around the city, making a wall twenty
or twenty-five feet high. The only en-
trance is through a gate with revolv-
ing stile, where the visitor pays forty
cents admission.
Pompeii is a wonderful place. The
old inhabitants, subjects of the En-
peror Titus, are still there-there in
glass cases, in the very pOstures in
which they died eighteen centuries
ago. In the courtyard of one house is
still standing a pedestal bearing a bust
of the owner of the house Cornelius
Rufus.
Toward set of sun, worn out with
wandering among the curious ruins
and relics of the dead past, 1 sought a
place wherein to rest and wait the
rising of the moon. In the temple of
Isis still stands the altar where the
Pompeiian priests delivered oracles to
the credulous people. The statue head,
whence issued the Oracles, stands now
as it then stood, on a pedestal, under
which the cunning priests had hidden
themselves Into this silent and secret
place l crawled, refreshed myself with
luncheon from my knapsack and lay
down to rest. The descent from Vesu-
vius and the days sightseeing proved
too much for me. / sank into a sleep,
not deep, but disturbed by dreams of
things long dead and gone. 1 saw old
pagan priests talking through the
sculptured head to humbug the igno-
rant worshippers. l saw the gaping
crowd of women and men. with faces
of awe and reverence, receiving the
lying Oracles; then suddenly, as it
seemed, man of grave and reverend
aspect, with long, flowing beard and
long hair, confronted the dcceiving
priests, and with commanding gestures,
ordered them away and overturned the
oracle head, which fell with a crash
amid the pagan's cries and shouts.
started up wildly, so vivid was the
scene. l found myself in darkness,
the sound of rough voices were shout
ing near by; l could not at first realize
where | was.
''Ahtnae LII quir' (here he isD,
shouted the rough voices. Then a man
with a lantern poked his head into the
place. and threw a sudden light upon
me. / was blinded and dazed. The
man began talking Italian at me so
rapidly that 1 became still more be-
wildered. Was l dead and in hades?
The Notwithstanding fellow with the
lantern seized me fiercely, jerked me
up and out of my hiding-place and
dragged me along to the gate of the
city. Once in the open air, my dazed
senses cleared and / began to take in
the situation. A fierce-looking fellow
with bristling mustache and a snowy
uniform went through my pockets and
knapsack, and then / was escorted down
the high road to Portici, village about
seven miles distant, in the direction OF
Naples. There I was lodged in Jail.
and the next morning brought before
an officer of justice, charged with the
heinous crime of sleeping in the dead
city of Pompeii. Putting on an inno-
| cent air, / said in my best Italian that
my intentions were not felonious. that
I had taken nothing. that I had fallen
asleep from over-fatigue-Ves
sightseeing and all that; and finally, as
no purloined relics were found upon me,
was let off with reprimand and 2
warning not to do so again.
/ discovered, on n second visit, that
the stile through which the visitor en-
ters Pompeii registers each person pass
/ ing in. At sunset another stile regis
| tiers the exits; exits and entrances must
tally. On this eventful eve they did not
tally. and so the silent streets and
houses of the dead were searched with
the result deseribed.-Fr0na "A Tramp
/ Trip, By Lee Neriteether.